JP2006039633A - Information processor and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processor capable of displaying the importance or the like of e-mail and whether or not a replay to a request mail is made independently from an e-mail software system of a transmitting source. <P>SOLUTION: An analysis dictionary storage part stores keywords and conditions for determining the contents of e-mails containing the keywords. A mail text analysis part retrieves a keyword contained in the text of an e-mail on the basis of the conditions in the analysis dictionary storage part, and determines the content of this mail depending on the presence/absence of the keywords. A received mail ranking part sorts received e-mails according to the importance thereof. A display device displays the result of sorting. The same analysis is performed for a transmitting mail to determine whether this e-mail is a reply to a request mail or not, and the result thereof is displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and program capable of sending and receiving and displaying electronic mail.

In companies, etc., it is usual that information processing terminals such as personal computers (PCs) are connected to a network composed of server devices, etc., and business requests, responses to requests, etc. are performed using e-mail. It has become to. Since ordinary e-mail software displays various e-mails such as notifications, requests, and responses in a mixed manner, it is likely that important request e-mails with deadlines that require responses are buried and forgotten.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses a technique for transmitting an e-mail for prompting a user when there is no answer after instructing and sending a reply date in an e-mail system. In addition, automatic e-mail follow-up techniques have been disclosed, such as displaying received mails that have a response request together with their deadlines. In order to realize this technology, a dedicated e-mail system in which an answer request, an answer deadline column, etc. are explicitly provided is used instead of general e-mail software. Therefore, it is necessary for the sender of the e-mail to send the e-mail by inputting whether or not to request a reply, a reply deadline, etc. on a dedicated form or the like of the e-mail system. Patent Documents 2 and 3 disclose an example in which important mail is displayed by the sender of the received electronic mail and the keyword in the text.
JP-A-7-202934 JP-A-8-286888 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-200254

In order to obtain the effect of the technique of Patent Document 1, it is necessary for the sender and the receiver to send and receive e-mails using the same mail system. Therefore, for example, a request mail from a client who uses a different mail system such as an external customer cannot use a function such as the above-mentioned time limit display. Moreover, although the technique of patent document 2, 3 can display the importance etc. of request mail, it does not manage whether it responded to the received request.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and regardless of the mail system of the transmission source, the nature of the e-mail is determined, and the received e-mail requires a reply. In some cases, an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and a program that can display whether or not a reply has been made to the electronic mail.

The present invention has been made to achieve the above-described object, and includes a first character string group including a receiving unit that receives an e-mail and a character example for determining that the e-mail should be answered. Analysis dictionary storing means for storing; mail sentence analyzing means for determining whether or not any character of the first character string group is included in the received e-mail; and as a result of the determination, the first An information processing apparatus comprising: a display unit configured to display that an e-mail that is determined to contain a character string group is an e-mail to be answered.

The invention further includes a reply means for replying to the received e-mail, wherein the analysis dictionary storage means is configured with a character string for determining that the e-mail is to be answered to the e-mail to be answered. A second character string group is further stored, and the mail analysis unit returns the reply when replying to an e-mail that is determined to contain any character of the first character string group. It is determined whether or not the second character string group is included in the e-mail, and the display means determines that one of the second character string groups is included as a result of the determination In response to the e-mail that is the reply target, the fact that the e-mail has been answered is further displayed.

  According to the information processing apparatus and the program according to the present invention, it is possible to determine and display what kind of property the e-mail has for any e-mail transmitted using any e-mail system. Thereby, even when the sender and the recipient use different email systems, it is possible to determine what the email is without checking the content of the email. In addition, since the importance of email can be determined according to the nature of the email and the sender, etc., and sorted and displayed according to the determined importance, so that important emails are not missed. Is possible. In addition, since it is possible to determine and display whether or not the electronic mail is a reply mail for the request mail, it is possible to reduce the number of responses to the request mail. In addition, since it is possible to determine whether or not the received electronic mail is a reply mail to the request mail transmitted by itself, it is easy to manage whether or not a reply has been received in response to the request.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a system configuration diagram for carrying out the present invention. In the system in FIG. 1, a PC 1, a mail server 2, etc. are connected via a network 3. Each part in FIG. 1 will be described. The PC 1 is for sending and receiving e-mails. In this embodiment, the PC 1 is a PC. However, the PC 1 is not limited to this, and may be any information processing apparatus that can send and receive e-mails. The mail server 2 supports POP (Post Office Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), and the like that exchange and control electronic mail transmission and reception. The network 3 includes the Internet, a LAN (Local Area Network), and the like.

FIG. 2 shows a hardware block diagram of the PC 1. In FIG. 2, the PC 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101, a memory 102, a LAN connection control means 103, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 104, a display control means 105, a display 106, an input control means 107, a keyboard 108, and the like. Is done.
Each part in FIG. 2 will be described. The memory 102 temporarily stores programs, tables, and the like. The LAN connection control means 103 controls the LAN interface. The HDD 104 stores programs, tables, databases, and the like. In the present embodiment, the HDD 104 is an HDD, but may be a portable medium such as a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, a ROM, or a CD-ROM. The display control unit 105 controls a display device such as a display 106 and a printer (not shown). The input control means 107 controls input devices such as a keyboard 108 and a mouse (not shown).

FIG. 3 shows a software block diagram of the PC 1 in this embodiment. In FIG. 3, the software of the PC 1 includes an application unit 300, an operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS) 310, an input / output control unit 320, and the like.
Each part in FIG. 3 will be described. The OS 310 performs application start / end, event notification, input / output control, hard disk management, and the like.
The input / output control unit 320 includes an input control unit 321, a display control unit 322, a communication control unit 323, and the like described below. The input control unit 321 is an input driver such as a keyboard 108 or a mouse. The display control unit 322 includes drivers for display devices such as the display 106 and a printer, and performs video memory management and the like. The communication control unit 323 includes a driver that controls the LAN interface and performs TCP / IP protocol control and the like.

In the present embodiment, the application unit 300 is assumed to be an application such as software that transmits and receives electronic mail. The application unit 300 includes a mail receiving unit 301, a mail transmitting unit 302, a mail sentence analyzing unit 303, a received mail ranking unit 304, a mail processing management unit 305, an analysis dictionary storage unit 306, and a ranking condition storage unit 307 described below. A mail management storage unit 308 and the like.
In the application unit 300, the mail receiving unit 301 receives an email received from the communication control unit 323 via the OS 310. The mail transmission unit 302 receives the electronic mail requested to be transmitted, and requests the communication control unit 323 to transmit via the OS 310.

The mail sentence analysis unit 303 extracts information to be presented to the user of the PC 1 from the transmitted / received electronic mail. Here, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 includes information such as a mail type indicating the nature of the transmitted / received e-mail, time limit information such as a response time limit for the request, an e-mail sender, a subject, and a reception date / time. Shall be extracted.
The mail type here is a classification of electronic mail according to its nature. Examples of mail types include “request with a time limit”, “request without time limit”, “answer”, “general”, “impossible to analyze”, and the like. This mail type is determined by analyzing e-mails sent and received by the mail sentence analysis unit 303 on the PC 1 based on conditions stored in an analysis dictionary storage unit 306 described later. In the present embodiment, a plurality of keywords are set as conditions for determining the mail type, and the mail type of the e-mail is determined based on which keyword is included in the text of the e-mail. Further, the term information here refers to a reply term for the request described in the requested email. This time limit information is extracted when the mail sentence analysis unit 303 analyzes an electronic mail transmitted / received by the PC 1 based on a condition stored in an analysis dictionary storage unit 306 described later.

The analysis dictionary storage unit 306 stores conditions for the mail sentence analysis unit 303 to determine the above-described mail type. In this embodiment, e-mails are classified according to whether or not keywords are included, and further, e-mail types are determined by combining and classifying keywords. Hereinafter, the classification of e-mails based on keywords will be described as a mail format, and the classification of e-mails determined by combining the classification based on keywords will be described as a mail type.
In this embodiment, the mail format is determined, and the mail type is determined by the combination of the mail formats. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the mail type may be determined by a single process. The mail type may be determined by a plurality of processes. By determining the mail type by a plurality of processes, the accuracy of the mail type determination can be improved, and more detailed mail type classification can be performed.

4 and 5 show examples of tables stored in the analysis dictionary storage unit 306. FIG. In FIG. 4, an analysis dictionary table 400 is an example of conditions for determining the mail format of an electronic mail. The analysis dictionary table 400 includes columns such as a keyword column, an analysis range column, and a format column. The keyword column stores a keyword to be searched, the analysis range column stores an analysis range indicating a keyword search range, and the format column stores an e-mail format. Here, it is searched whether there is a keyword within the analysis range of the e-mail. If there is a keyword, the e-mail format corresponding to the keyword is the e-mail format of the e-mail.
In the example of the analysis dictionary table 400 of FIG. 4, when the keyword “expiration date month month date” or “before month date” is included in the analysis range “a”, the email format of the email Will be in “time limit format”. When the keyword “request” or “request” is included in the analysis range “a”, the mail format of the e-mail is “request format”. When the keyword “answer” is included in the analysis range “b”, the email format of the e-mail is “answer format”. It should be noted that “?” In the keywords “expiration month month date” and “before month month date” represents a variable, and any number can be applied. Further, the analysis range “a” here indicates a condition that, when the word “above” is found in the last line of the text of the mail body, the top five lines are searched from the line. The analysis range “b” indicates a condition that when the first line of the text of the mail body includes the characters “case”, the lower five lines are searched from the line. This analysis range is not an essential item, and the analysis range is not limited to the above-described “a” and “b”.

An example of determining the mail format by applying the above-described analysis dictionary table 400 will be described with reference to an e-mail example shown in FIG. In the case of FIG. 11A, the upper five lines from the character “above” in the last line are the analysis range “a”. Since the keyword “by 20 February” is included in the analysis range a, the mail format of the e-mail is “time limit format”. Further, since the keyword “Please” is included in the analysis range “a”, the mail format of the e-mail is “request format”. Thus, one electronic mail can be classified into a plurality of mail formats. In the case of FIG. 11B, the upper five lines from the character “above” in the last line are the analysis range “a”. Since the analysis range “a” includes the keyword “limit date 20 February”, the mail format of the e-mail is “limit date format”. In addition, since the keyword “requested” is included in the analysis range “a”, the mail format of the e-mail is “request format”. In the case of FIG. 11C, the analysis line “b” is the lower five lines from the first line “case” of the mail text. Since the analysis range “b” includes the letter “answer”, the mail format of the e-mail is “answer format”.

In FIG. 5, a mail type determination table 500 is an example of conditions for determining a mail type from a combination of mail formats. The mail type determination table 500 shown as an example in FIG. 5 includes mail format combinations, mail types corresponding to the mail format combinations, and the like.
In the example of the mail type determination table 500, when the mail format determined based on the analysis dictionary table 400 does not correspond to any format, the mail type of the e-mail is “general”. When the mail format is determined to be “request format”, the mail type of the e-mail is “no request for expiration”. When it is determined that the mail format is “request format” and “time limit format”, the mail type of the e-mail is “request with time limit”. When the mail format is determined as “answer format”, the mail type of the e-mail is “answer”. In the case of a combination in which the mail format is inconsistent, the mail type of the electronic mail is “unanalyzable”.

An example in which an e-mail example shown in FIG. 11 is determined using the mail type determination table 500 will be described. In the case of FIG. 11A, as described above, since the mail format is “time limit format” and “request format”, the mail type of the e-mail is “request with time limit”. In the case of FIG. 11B, since the mail format is “time limit format” and “request format” as described above, the mail type of the e-mail is “request with time limit”. In the case of FIG. 11C, since the mail format is “answer format” as described above, the mail type of the e-mail is “answer”.
The conditions stored in the analysis dictionary storage unit 306 described above are stored in advance, but may be input by a user operating the PC 1 or may be changed. .

In FIG. 3, the received mail ranking unit 304 determines the rank of the e-mail according to the importance of the received e-mail based on the conditions stored in the ranking condition storage unit 307 to be described later. Sort based on rank. Here, based on the ranking item which is an index for determining the importance level of the received email and the rank corresponding to the ranking item, the importance level of the received email is determined and sorted. To do.

The ranking condition storage unit 307 stores conditions for sorting the emails in order of importance in the received mail ranking unit 304. Here, a ranking item, a rank corresponding to the ranking item, whether to sort in descending order or ascending order, and the like are stored. An example of the table stored in the ranking condition storage unit 307 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, a mail address table 600 is an example of conditions for determining importance by the sender of an electronic mail. The mail address table 600 includes a mail address field, an attribute field, a rank field, and the like. An e-mail address is stored in the e-mail address column. Further, the attribute column stores the job level of the sender corresponding to the mail address, such as an external customer, an internal boss, an internal colleague, or the like. Here, the relative positions of the PC 1 users, such as external customers, internal bosses, and internal colleagues, are referred to as attributes. In the rank column, information such as rank determined by the attribute is stored. In the case of the mail address table 600, the rank is “1” when the attribute of the sender is B, which is an external customer. The rank is “2” when the sender's attribute is C, which is an in-house manager. When the sender attribute is D, which is an in-house colleague, the rank is “3”. In the case of the mail address table 600, the attribute corresponds to a ranking item.

A case will be described in which an e-mail whose example is shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B is determined. 11A and 11B, since the sender is B, the received mail ranking unit 304 determines that the rank of the electronic mail is “1”.

The mail address stored in the mail address table 600 may be input by a user who operates the PC 1 or may be quoted from a personal address book or a common address book shared by employees in companies and the like. The attribute and rank may be arbitrarily determined by the user who operates the PC 1, or may be cited in advance as a common address shared by a company or the like.

3, the mail processing management unit 305 stores information to be presented to the user of the PC 1 in a mail management storage unit 308 described later. Furthermore, the process of selecting and replying to an e-mail that requires a reply is controlled.
The mail management storage unit 308 stores information to be presented to the user of the PC 1 and the transmitted / received electronic mail itself. An example of the table stored in the mail management storage unit 308 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, the received mail management table 700 stores information to be presented to the user of the PC 1. The received mail management table 700 includes a link information column, a reception date / time column, a subject column, a FROM column, a type column, an answer column, a deadline column, an urgency level column, and the like. Link information is stored in the link information column. The link information here is information for referring to the e-mail itself that is the basis of each information stored in the received e-mail management table 700, and is unique for each e-mail sent and received. This link information may be issued by a configuration not shown of the application unit 300, or may be issued by the mail processing management unit 305 or the like. The reception date / time column stores the reception date / time of the e-mail. The subject field stores the subject of the e-mail. The sender of the electronic mail is stored in the FROM column. In the type column, the mail type determined by the mail sentence analysis unit 303 is stored. The answer column stores whether or not a reply to the electronic mail to be answered has been made. In the time limit column, the time limit information of the received e-mail is stored. In the urgency level column, the urgency level of the electronic mail is stored. For example, the urgency may be determined by the number of remaining days obtained by the difference between the date and time of the internal clock of the PC 1 and the time limit of the received mail management table 700 by the received mail ranking unit 304 or the like.

In this embodiment, the mail reception unit 301, the mail transmission unit 302, the mail sentence analysis unit 303, the received mail ranking unit 304, the mail processing management unit 305, the analysis dictionary storage unit 306, the ranking condition storage unit 307, the mail The management storage unit 308 indicates the configuration of add-in software of the application unit 300. Each of these units is constituted by a CPU 101 and a memory 102, and the function is realized by loading a program for realizing the function of each unit into the memory 102 and executing it. Since the e-mail text is analyzed and judged by the recipient, it is possible to determine for what purpose the e-mail was sent by any e-mail system. It is possible to display to the user whether or not the response to the request by electronic mail has been made.

Next, the flowcharts shown in FIGS.
FIG. 8 shows an operation example when the PC 1 receives an electronic mail.
The e-mail transmitted from the mail server 2 is received by the mail receiving unit 301 via the communication control unit 323 and the OS 310 of the PC 1 (S801).
The mail receiving unit 301 transmits the received electronic mail to the mail sentence analysis 303. The mail sentence analysis unit 303 extracts information to be presented to the user from the received electronic mail. Here, information such as FROM indicating the date and time of reception of the e-mail, the subject, and the sender is extracted from a predetermined format of the application unit 300. The mail sentence analysis unit 303 transmits the information extracted in this way and the electronic mail to the mail processing management unit 305. The mail processing management unit 305 associates the link information of the e-mail with information such as the e-mail reception date / time, subject, and FROM, and adds them to the bottom of the received mail management table 700 (S802).

Next, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 determines the mail type of the received electronic mail. In this embodiment, in order to determine the mail type, the mail format is determined, and the mail type is determined from the determined mail format. The mail sentence analysis unit 303 first determines the mail format based on the analysis dictionary table 400 shown as an example in FIG. Based on the link information stored in the received mail management table 700, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 reads out the email stored in the mail management storage unit 308. Next, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 refers to the analysis dictionary table 400 and searches whether or not a keyword is included in the analysis range of the text of the read electronic mail. If the keyword is included, the keyword is included in the keyword. The corresponding format is the email format of the e-mail (S803). Here, it is assumed that all keywords stored in the analysis dictionary table 400 are sequentially searched for one electronic mail. Thereby, one electronic mail may be classified into a plurality of mail formats.

Next, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 determines the mail type from the combination of mail formats. Here, the mail type determined as described above is determined based on the mail type determination table 500 shown as an example in FIG. The mail text analysis unit 303 refers to the mail type determination table 500, searches for the combination of the mail format determined in step S803, and determines the type corresponding to the combination as the mail type of the electronic mail (S804). Next, when the e-mail includes time limit information, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 extracts the time limit information from the e-mail. Here, as a result of step S804 described above, it is determined whether or not the mail type of the analyzed e-mail is a time limit request, and if it is a time limit request, time limit information is extracted. In that case, for example, a keyword used to determine a term format such as “expiration date: ?? month ?? day” is searched from the e-mail body, and the variable part “?” Of the keyword is extracted, thereby obtaining the due date. Information may be extracted. Next, the mail text analysis unit 303 transmits the analyzed link information, mail type, time limit information, and the like of the email to the mail processing management unit 305.

Note that the mail sentence analysis unit 303 may perform the above-described determination of the mail type only for unanalyzed electronic mail. In this case, for example, an unanalyzed e-mail may be determined based on the presence or absence of a flag set by the mail processing management unit 305 or the like indicating that it is not analyzed. The unanalyzed mail may be determined depending on whether the item is a NULL code or the like.
The mail processing management unit 305 sets other vacant fields in the received mail management table 700. First, the mail processing management unit 305 determines whether or not the transmitted mail type is “analysis impossible” (S805).
When the mail type cannot be analyzed, the mail processing management unit 305, based on the link information transmitted together with the mail type, the reply field, rank field, deadline field, and urgency field corresponding to the email in the received mail management table 700 Set a code that represents unknown to etc. Here, the code indicating unknown is “?”. Further, a code indicating that analysis is impossible is set in the type column (S820).

If the mail type is not parseable, the mail processing management unit 305 displays the mail type determined by the mail sentence analysis unit 303 in step S804 in the type column corresponding to the corresponding email in the received mail management table 700 based on the link information. Set (S806). Next, the mail processing management unit 305 sets the time limit information in the time limit column corresponding to the corresponding e-mail in the received mail management table 700 based on the link information (S807). If there is no deadline information in the analyzed email, a code indicating that there is no deadline information is set. Here, it is assumed that the code indicating that there is no time limit information is “no time limit”. Next, the mail processing management unit 305 refers to the type column of the received mail management table 700 and determines whether the mail type is a request with no time limit or a request with a time limit. When the mail type is a request with no time limit or a request with a time limit, the mail processing management unit 305 sets a code indicating unanswered in the answer column corresponding to the received mail. Here, it is assumed that the code indicating unanswered is “not yet” (S808). If the mail type is not a request with no time limit or a request with a time limit, it is left as a NULL code or the like. Here, a NULL code or the like is indicated by “−”. Next, the mail processing management unit 305 notifies the received mail ranking unit 304 that the analysis of the e-mail has been completed by sending an event or the like.

The received mail ranking unit 304 ranks emails based on the conditions stored in the ranking condition storage unit 307. Here, it is assumed that the received mail ranking unit 304 uses the attribute of the sender of the email as a ranking item, and determines the rank of the email based on the item. The received mail ranking unit 304 compares the FROM (sender) of the received mail management table 700 stored in the mail management storage unit 308 with the mail address table 600 stored in the ranking condition storage unit 307. The rank of the e-mail is determined based on the attribute of the sender (S809). Next, the received mail ranking unit 304 sets the rank determined in step S809 in the rank column corresponding to the e-mail in the received mail management table 700 (S810).

Next, the received mail ranking unit 304 sorts the received mail management table 700 according to the received mail rank based on the conditions stored in the ranking condition storage unit 307. Examples of ranking items to be sorted include a mail type, a sender, whether or not a reply is made to an email to be answered, a reply deadline, an urgency level, and the like. Here, it is assumed that only the rank column of the received mail management table 700 determined by the attribute of the sender is referred to and sorted in ascending order. As a result of the sorting, the e-mails are arranged in the order that the sender is an external customer, an internal supervisor, and an internal colleague. (S830)
The display control unit 322 quotes the sorted received mail management table 700 and displays it on a display device such as the display 106 or a printer as shown in FIG. 12 (S831).

An example of operation when changing the mail type, time limit, etc. of the e-mail received by the user who has confirmed the result displayed on the PC 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The user inputs the change contents using an input device such as a keyboard 108 or a mouse. Here, when changing the mail type, it is assumed that the mail type is input by selecting from the pull-down as shown in FIG. When the deadline is changed, the deadline is directly input. Hereinafter, information including information input as described above and link information of an electronic mail to be corrected is referred to as correction information. Here, it is assumed that the link information of the electronic mail to be corrected is obtained by the user specifying the electronic mail using the input device. Here, it is assumed that a flag indicating correction information is set in the correction information due to a configuration or the like (not shown) of the application unit 300. After inputting the change contents, the user notifies the input completion by pressing a sort button displayed on the display 106 or the like.

The mail sentence analysis unit 303 receives the correction information via the display control unit 322, the OS 310, and the mail reception unit 301 (S900). Here, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 determines whether or not the received information has a flag indicating that the information is correction information. If the flag is set, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 determines that the information is correction information, and It is assumed that the correction information is transmitted to the mail processing management unit 305 without performing such analysis. The mail processing management unit 305 reflects the received correction information on information displayed to the user in the mail management storage unit 308. Here, based on the link information included in the received correction information, the type field, the time limit field, etc. corresponding to the received mail in the received mail management table 700 are set again (S901). Next, the mail management processing unit 305 transmits an event or the like to the received mail ranking unit 304. The received mail ranking unit 304 that has received an event or the like determines the rank of the received e-mails and sorts them in the same manner as in step S830 described above (S902). The display control unit 322 quotes the sorted received mail management table 700 and displays it on a display device such as the display 106 or a printer as shown in FIG. 12 (S903).

An operation example for replying to the request mail will be described with reference to FIG.
The user selects a received mail to be replied by clicking with the mouse from the received mail list displayed as shown in FIG. 12 as an example, and starts a reply process such as input of reply contents. The mail processing management unit 305 recognizes link information of the received mail from the received mail selected by the user, and further controls reply processing such as displaying a reply content input window on the display 106 (S1001).
After the input, the user clicks a transmission button to execute transmission processing. Then, the mail processing management unit 305 transmits the reply mail to the mail sentence analysis unit 303 together with the link information of the received mail that is the reply target. The mail sentence analysis unit 303 transmits the reply mail via the mail transmission unit 302, the OS 310, and the communication control unit 323 (S1002).

The mail sentence analysis unit 303 transmits the reply mail transmitted from the mail processing management unit 305 to the mail transmission unit 302 and then determines the mail type of the reply mail. Here, as described above, the mail format is determined, and the mail type is determined from the determined mail format. First, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 determines the mail format based on the analysis dictionary table 400 shown as an example in FIG. The mail sentence analysis unit 303 refers to the analysis dictionary table 400 and searches whether or not a keyword is included in the analysis range of the text of the outgoing mail. If a keyword is included, the format corresponding to the keyword is The e-mail format is set (S1003).

Next, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 determines the mail type from the combination of mail formats. Here, the mail type determined as described above is determined based on the mail type determination table 500 shown as an example in FIG. The mail text analysis unit 303 refers to the mail type determination table 500, searches for the combination of mail formats determined in step S1003, and determines the type corresponding to the combination as the mail type of the e-mail (S1004). After the analysis, the mail sentence analysis unit 303 transmits the analyzed mail type to the mail processing management unit 305 together with the link information transmitted together with the reply mail.
The mail processing management unit 305 updates the response status to the request by e-mail stored in the mail management storage unit 308. Here, first, the mail processing management unit 305 determines whether or not the mail type transmitted to the mail text analysis unit 303 is a reply mail (S1005).

If the mail type is not a reply mail, the mail processing management unit 305 does not update the received mail management table 700 (S1010). Here, it is assumed that the mail type is not updated even when the mail type is “analysis impossible”.
When the mail type is reply mail, the mail processing management unit 305 corresponds to the link information of the received mail that is the reply target in the received mail management table 700 based on the link information transmitted from the mail sentence analysis unit 303. Set a code indicating that the answer has been made in the answer field. Here, it is assumed that the code indicating that the answer has been made is “completed” (S1006). The mail sentence analyzing unit 303 notifies the received mail ranking unit 304 that the analysis of the e-mail has been completed by sending an event or the like. The received mail ranking unit 304 sorts the e-mails as described above (S1007). The operation of displaying the sorted result is the same as steps S831 and S903 described above.

As described above, the example of analyzing, ranking, and analyzing the response to the received e-mail has been described. However, the above-described operation can be similarly applied to the case of sending a request e-mail from itself. It is.
In this case, whether or not the content of the electronic mail transmitted by the PC 1 is a request mail is analyzed using a keyword included in the electronic mail in the same manner as described above. When an e-mail is received, the e-mail is analyzed in the same manner as described above to determine whether the received e-mail is a response e-mail to the request e-mail. As a result, it is possible to perform an erased follow-up that has been answered.
As a condition for determining whether or not the sent e-mail is a request e-mail, for example, when “Request” or “Request” is used as a keyword and the keyword is included in the e-mail body It can be determined that the electronic mail is a request mail.

Further, as a condition for determining whether or not the received mail is a reply mail to the request mail, for example, a character indicating a reply such as “reply” is used as a keyword, and if the keyword is included in the body of the email, the electronic mail This can be determined by assuming that the mail is an answer mail.
When one request mail is transmitted to a plurality of other parties, the received mail management table 700 may be provided with a plurality of transmission partner management fields for one request mail transmitted by itself. The link information for the requested mail may be issued for each destination and managed one-on-one.

In the above-described embodiment, the ranking item has been described as being based on the attribute of the email sender. However, the ranking item is not limited to this, and for example, whether or not the answer has been made, the mail type, the attribute of the sender, the electronic You may rank by the combination of items, such as a reply time limit set by mail, and urgency, or any. When determining the importance level based on the combination of items, for example, the rank corresponding to each item is stored in the ranking condition storage unit 307, and the importance level is determined based on the product of the ranks. By sorting the rank products in ascending or descending order, the ranks can be displayed in order of importance.

In the above description, the case of analyzing an e-mail body has been described. However, the present invention may be applied to an attached file attached to an e-mail.

Moreover, although the analysis ranges a and b are set in the above-described embodiment, the setting of the analysis range is arbitrary and does not necessarily need to be set. When setting the analysis range, the analysis range is not limited to a part of the e-mail body as described above, and may be the full text of the e-mail body, the subject, the sender, the recipient, and the like.
As an example of setting the analysis range, characters after the header such as “>” added to the quote during reply processing may be out of the analysis range, and “Re:” is returned in the subject of the received email. Whether or not the mail is a reply mail may be determined based on whether or not there is a character string added as a header when processing.

Further, the means for determining which request mail is answered is not limited to recognizing link information at the time of reply processing as described above. For example, determination may be made based on whether or not the characters after the header such as “>” added to the quoted sentence during reply processing match the request mail, or reply processing such as “Re:” in the subject of the email It may be determined whether or not the characters after the header match the request mail.

Further, as an analysis condition of the e-mail text, analysis may be performed by searching for similar words of keywords using a similar word dictionary, and further, artificial intelligence analysis may be added.

Further, the mail analysis dictionary storage unit 306 can be realized as a part of the analysis program in the mail sentence analysis unit 303.

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes design changes and the like within a scope not departing from the gist of the present invention.

It is a figure which shows the example of the system configuration | structure of one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is a hardware block diagram of the PC 1 in the same embodiment. FIG. 3 is a software block diagram of the PC 1 in the same embodiment. In the embodiment, it is a figure which shows an example of an analysis dictionary table. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows an example of a mail classification determination table. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows an example of a mail address table. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows an example of a received mail management table. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation when an e-mail is received in the embodiment. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of an operation for correcting the type, deadline, and the like of received electronic mail in the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of an operation when an electronic mail is transmitted in the embodiment. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows an example of the email transmitted / received. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows the example of a display which displays the list of the received email. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of changing the type, time limit, and the like of a received electronic mail in the same embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

1: PC, 2: mail server, 3: network, 101: CPU, 102: memory, 103: LAN connection control means, 104: HDD, 105: display control means, 106: display, 107: input control means, 108: Keyboard: 300: Application part 301: Mail receiving part 302: Mail sending part 303: Mail sentence analysis part 304: Received mail ranking part 305: Mail processing management part 306: Analysis dictionary storage part 307: Ranking condition storage unit, 308: mail management storage unit, 310: OS, 320: input / output control unit, 321: input control unit, 322: display control unit, 323: communication control unit, 400: analysis dictionary table, 500: Mail type determination table, 600: mail address table, 700: received mail management table

Claims (6)

Receiving means for receiving e-mail;
Analysis dictionary storage means for storing a first character string group composed of character examples for determining that the e-mail should be answered;
A mail sentence analyzing means for determining whether or not any character of the first character string group is included in the received e-mail;
As a result of the determination, with respect to an e-mail that is determined to contain the first character string group, display means for displaying that the e-mail is an e-mail to be answered;
An information processing apparatus comprising: A reply means for replying to the received e-mail;
The analysis dictionary storage means further stores a second character string group composed of character strings for determining that the e-mail to be answered is an e-mail to be answered,
When the mail analysis unit replies to an e-mail that is determined to contain any character of the first character string group, the second character string group is included in the e-mail to be returned. Determine whether it is included,
The display means that, as a result of the determination, in response to an e-mail that is a reply target of the e-mail that is determined to include any of the second character string groups, the display means The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is displayed. At least one of the first character string group and the second character string group is stored in the analysis dictionary storage unit in association with a range to be searched for the character string group,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mail analysis unit determines whether the character string group is included in an associated search range. Ranking condition storage means for storing a ranking condition for determining a rank indicating the importance of the received e-mail;
Ranking means for determining the rank of the received email based on the ranking condition;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays e-mails sorted based on the rank determined by the ranking unit. The analysis dictionary storage means further stores a third character string group for regarding that an answer deadline is set in an e-mail to be answered,
The mail part analyzing means determines whether or not the third character string group is included in the email to be answered,
The display means further displays that an e-mail determined to contain any of the third character string group is an e-mail with a reply time limit set. The information processing apparatus according to any one of 1 to 4. A program for an information processing apparatus that can send and receive e-mails,
Receiving an email; and
Storing a first character string group composed of character examples for determining that the e-mail should be answered;
Determining whether any of the characters of the first character string group is included in the received e-mail;
As a result of the determination, for an e-mail that is determined to include the first character string group, displaying that the e-mail is an e-mail to be answered;
A program that causes a computer to execute.

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